High Definition Real-Time MRI of Opera Singing

MRI technology has advanced tremendously over the years resulting in significantly higher definition of anatomy as well as real-time portrayal of movement. Such MRI technological progression is particularly noticeable in the depiction of singing anatomy. Check out the following videos over the years: 2016 2015 2011

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New Ultrafast MRI Scan Shows Anatomy During Singing [video]

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign use a new technique that is 10-times faster than standard MRI scanners (100 fps) to illustrate how the hundreds of muscles in our neck, jaw, tongue, and lips work together to produce sound.

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Lisa Marie Presley Throat Cancer Scare

Image from Wikipedia The National Enquirer reported 1/20/14 that Lisa Marie Presley suffered a throat cancer scare when she was told by a medical expert that "the 45-year-old singer’s throat is so severely ravaged that ... the damage could lead to deadly esophageal cancer!" [ link ] The National Enquirer, which is not know for stellar journalism, goes on to report that she has been pushing her voice hard in order to succeed as a singer like her more famous father Elvis. In spi…

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Dr. Chang Contributor to New Textbook on Singing

Released on January 6, 2014, a new textbook on singing "The Ultimate Guide to Singing," was published with numerous contributors ranging from singing stars, engineers, and even Dr. Christopher Chang . Most of Dr. Chang's contributions to the textbook are in Chapter 11: Staying Healthy. You can buy the textbook on Amazon.com !

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How to Describe Hoarseness?

At heart, physicians are science geeks. And when it comes to a raspy voice , one can go truly bananas in how exactly to describe how a raspy voice sounds. For the layperson, when asked to describe a hoarse voice, one often gets imprecise answers to a question most feel ridiculous... I often get a blank look with an answer that goes something like "You know... raspy... it's not clear." Unfortunately, such a description is inadequate. Even when using more descriptors like deeper…

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Opera Music Improves Heart Transplant Survival

Sara Maines of The MaineStudio Not kidding... This research  was actually published in the Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery in 2012. I should add that the research was done in mice rather than humans and won the 2013 Ig Prize in Medicine. To quote from the abstract : "recipients of a B6 cardiac graft that were exposed to opera music and Mozart had significantly prolonged allograft [transplant] survival... whereas those exposed to a single sound frequency (100, 500, 1000, 5000, 10,…

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Speech Impediment to Great Singing on American Idol

During January 2013 auditions of Season 12 of American Idol, there was Lazaro Arbos who has a terrible stutter when he talks, but sings beautifully. A week later, we encountered Micah Johnson  who also suffers from a speech impediment, but rather than a stutter, it was due to "nerve damage" sustained during a tonsillectomy . (Watch videos below) With stuttering, the problem mainly lies at the brain level. The brain coordinates how a person uses all of their throat muscles to crea…

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Why Does My Voice Sound Different on Recording and Treatment Options

Every so often, I have a patient who presents to my office with a complaint that their voice sounds different on recording than what they themselves hear. In particular, singers who come in state specifically that their vocal recordings sounds slightly flat when they thought they were singing in perfect pitch. So why does this happen? Unfortunately, it is physics  and fundamentally integrated to how the ear, skull, and sound transmission work. In other words, it can't be "trea…

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TV Show SMASH Portrays Ivy With Vocal Issues

In last night's episode (Episode 106: Chemistry) of the new hit TV drama SMASH , the main character Ivy who plays Marilyn Monroe in the show developed laryngitis that affected her ability to sing clearly, especially in the high registers. However, her speaking voice did sound normal. To treat this condition, she was given prednisone which did help her voice, but suffered unfortunate side effects of mood lability, hallucinations, insomnia, etc. Did the show accurately portray what act…

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What is the Voicebox Doing When You Scream? Yodel?

In the same spirit of a recent TEDMED talk by Nate Bell and re-published on CNN Jan 12, 2012 whereby he performed various beatboxing noises while stroboscopy was performed, I decided to record a similar video with a person performing various unusual human vocalizations to see what happens. For those who don't know what stroboscopy is, click here . Such vocalizations recorded included various types of human screams and a yodel. Check it out here ...

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Miss America, SLP-CCC

Miss Wisconsin Laura Kaeppeler won the Miss America title for 2012 this past weekend. This news co-mingled with all the other news of the day, except for one key fact that caught my attention... Miss Kaeppelar majored in music and vocal performance and plans to obtain a Master's degree in speech and language pathology (SLP). A voice major with a Master's in SLP is a rare combination that is in great demand in the world of laryngology where singers with vocal injury are common…

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Human Ear Contains a Built-In "Ear Plug"

According to one Australian researcher , by just chewing a gum or singing/talking loudly, one could be protecting your ears from noise-induced hearing damage. How??? It is not common knowledge that the human ear contains two muscles that attach to the middle ear bones called the stapedius and tensor tympani muscles. The middle ear bones, composed of the malleus, incus, and stapes, are what transmits sounds from the eardrum to the cochlea which allows a person to hear. The stapedius muscle…

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American Idol Laryngitis Scare for Lauren Alaina

On May 24, 2011, US Magazine reported that American Idol Finalist Lauren Alaina "blew a vocal cord during afternoon rehearsal" and apparently completely lost her voice (aphonia). Apparently, a doctor on set and ordered Lauren not to sing or speak which brought a very real possibility that she would not be able to perform that evening. Fortunately, "emergency" care was provided along with resting the voice and apparently sang quite well that night. Without benefit of h…

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New Member Added to the Voice Team at Fauquier ENT

Please welcome Sarah Maines, BM, MM who recently joined the voice team at Fauquier ENT as a singing voice therapist and fills the place of Jennifer Sharp and Mark Greenawalt who have left. Sarah is on faculty at the Shenandoah Conservatory of Shenandoah University as a Doctoral Student of Musical Arts. She is a trained classical singer who performed as the First Lady in The Magic Flute with conductor Jan Wagner and director Daniel Helfgot. She sang Euridice and Donna Elvira in the Lexington…

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New Video and Audio of True Vocal Cord Swelling in a Singer

A new audio and video strobe examination of a singer with true vocal cord swelling has been posted here . This example clearly demonstrates the hourglass gap with vocal cord adduction due to the swelling as well as onset delays and pitch breaks common in this particular disorder. Vocal cord swelling is a very common and treatable cause of hoarseness in singers and in people who just plain like to talk a lot. It is considered the first stage before formation of nodules/polyps/cysts if not tre…

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LECTURE: Anatomy & Function of the Singing Voice

Dr. Chang has been invited to be a guest lecturer at Shenandoah University to give a talk on the human voice in the course "Anatomy & Function of the Singing Voice". The lecture will be held at Shenandoah University from 4-6PM on March 21, 2007.

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New Handout on Voice Rehabilitation

A handout on voice rehabilitation for patients with vocal cord swelling/pre-nodules has been posted. Click here .

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